40 Fun Facts About Isle of Dogs

In Isle of Dogs, where does Mayor Kobayashi's decree banish every dog, starting with his own household's?

Trash Island soon earns the nickname that gives the film its title, once the exiled dogs have made the dump their home.

In Isle of Dogs, what is the name of the lost pet that 12-year-old Atari crash-lands a plane to find?

Spots was the very first dog deported under the mayor's decree, and Atari sets out after him six months later.

Which actor won an Annie Award for voicing Chief, the lifelong stray at the centre of Isle of Dogs?

Bryan Cranston took the Annie Award for voice acting for the role, having been one of the first three cast members announced back in 2015.

Which animation technique did Wes Anderson use for Isle of Dogs, as he had for an earlier animal film?

Stop-motion meant building 1,105 animatable puppets and about 20,000 faces, with each main character taking two to three months to make.

Isle of Dogs was Wes Anderson's second animated feature; which Roald Dahl adaptation was his first?

Fantastic Mr. Fox arrived in 2009, and a number of its animators came back nine years later to bring the dogs to life.

Which famous musician and artist voices an Isle of Dogs scientist who shares her own real name?

Yoko Ono plays an assistant scientist called Yoko Ono, who hands over the last vial of the cure after her professor is killed.

Wes Anderson was inspired to make Isle of Dogs after noticing what in England during work on an earlier film?

A road sign pointing to a real place called the Isle of Dogs caught his eye years before he wrote a word about talking dogs.

In Isle of Dogs, what does Atari recite at the re-election ceremony that changes Mayor Kobayashi's mind?

A haiku that Atari wrote and dedicated to the mayor does it, reminding the crowd of the old sympathy between dogs and people.

After Atari is wounded at the end of Isle of Dogs, what does a repentant Mayor Kobayashi donate to save him?

A kidney from the mayor saves the boy, and the mayor's crimes then bar him from office, leaving Atari to run the city.

In Isle of Dogs, how is the orphan Atari related to Kenji Kobayashi, the mayor who exiles the city's dogs?

His nephew and legal ward, Atari is described as only a distant relation, yet he ends up replacing the mayor in office.

Isle of Dogs unfolds in and around which fictional Japanese city, governed by the dog-hating Mayor Kobayashi?

Megasaki lies across the water from the dump where its dogs are exiled, and Atari and the pack finally sail back to it in homemade boats.

In Isle of Dogs, an outbreak of which illness is Mayor Kobayashi's official reason for exiling dogs?

Canine flu gives the mayor his excuse, but he and his political party turn out to have started the outbreak themselves.

The Kobayashi dynasty that wages war on dogs in Isle of Dogs is devoted to which other animal?

Cats are the clan's favoured animal, and the film opens with its ancestors waging war on dogs in the distant past.

In Isle of Dogs, Professor Watanabe is murdered under house arrest with a poisoned serving of which food?

Sushi laced with poison silences the professor shortly after he perfects a serum that cures the sick dogs.

In Isle of Dogs, what do the stray Chief and the missing dog Atari is searching for turn out to be?

Brothers all along, the pair look strikingly alike once a bath from Atari washes the black out of Chief's coat.

Before being exiled in Isle of Dogs, what job did Atari's dog hold in the mayor's household?

Bodyguard to the boy was the post, and by the end it passes to Chief because its first holder has puppies to raise.

In Isle of Dogs, the isolated dog tribe that Chief's pack sets out to find is rumoured to be what?

Cannibals is the rumour, but the tribe are really escaped test subjects from an abandoned secret lab, and they come to the pack's rescue.

In Isle of Dogs' prologue, which legendary figure beheads the Kobayashi clan's leader to end a war on dogs?

The Boy Samurai is a child warrior who took the dogs' side against the clan, a legend the film echoes when young Atari does the same.

Which Isle of Dogs character, Mayor Kobayashi's hatchet man, tries to launch the dogs' extermination himself?

Major Domo also orders the professor's murder, and when his boss repents on stage he tries to carry out the cull anyway.

Scarlett Johansson voices which Isle of Dogs character, a former show dog who persuades Chief to help Atari?

Nutmeg turns out to be the pet of Tracy Walker, the exchange student whose pro-dog activist group exposes the mayor.

In Isle of Dogs, Boss, voiced by Bill Murray, was the mascot of a high-school team in which sport?

Baseball is his game: Boss was mascot of a team called the Dragons, and he still wears its striped jersey in exile.

Tilda Swinton voices which Isle of Dogs pug, who travels alongside a big dog named Jupiter?

Oracle and Jupiter are the sages the pack consults, and they point the search toward an isolated tribe with a fearsome reputation.

Who voices Tracy Walker, the American exchange student who suspects a conspiracy in Isle of Dogs?

Greta Gerwig's Tracy hails from Cincinnati, Ohio, and falls for Atari while she investigates the professor's death.

Which actor voices Atari's missing dog in Isle of Dogs, who turns up leading a tribe of escaped lab dogs?

Liev Schreiber's character survives being the first dog deported, becomes the tribe's leader and is expecting his first litter when Atari finds him.

Which actor voices Interpreter Nelson, the news reporter who translates Japanese speech in Isle of Dogs?

Frances McDormand's interpreter is how much of the film's Japanese reaches English speakers, with a translating machine covering the rest.

Which Japanese writer and actor both voices Mayor Kobayashi and shares the story credit on Isle of Dogs?

Kunichi Nomura is credited on the story alongside Wes Anderson and two of the director's regular collaborators, as well as playing the villain.

Which member of Chief's pack in Isle of Dogs was once the star of dog-food commercials?

King, voiced by Bob Balaban, was the face of a brand called Doggy Chop before the exile ended his screen career.

Which composer of The Grand Budapest Hotel's music also wrote the original music for Isle of Dogs?

Alexandre Desplat built part of the sound around a handful of saxophones, whose biting motif he likened to a barking dog.

Which traditional Japanese instrument, suggested by Wes Anderson, is heard throughout the Isle of Dogs soundtrack?

Taiko drums carry the melody linked to Atari, and their relentless pounding is used to build tension and fear.

Music from which Japanese director's films, including Drunken Angel, appears on the Isle of Dogs soundtrack?

Akira Kurosawa was among the influences Wes Anderson named for the film, alongside American holiday television specials.

Which studio behind TV's Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer did Wes Anderson cite as an influence on Isle of Dogs?

Rankin/Bass built its name on holiday specials for American television, beginning with its reindeer story in 1964.

Which Japanese animation director did Wes Anderson name as an influence on Isle of Dogs?

Hayao Miyazaki shares the list of influences with live-action Japanese classics, a Disney dog adventure and American holiday specials.

Isle of Dogs became the first animated film to open which major European film festival, in February 2018?

Berlin gave the film its world premiere on opening night, and Wes Anderson left the festival with its prize for directing.

Isle of Dogs earned two Oscar nominations: one for animated feature and one in which other category?

Original Score was the second nomination, and the same pair of categories brought nods at the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs too.

Which studio label acquired worldwide distribution rights to Isle of Dogs while it was still in production?

Fox Searchlight had released only one animated film before, Waking Life, seventeen years earlier.

Isle of Dogs shares its name with a real peninsula bounded on three sides by which English river?

Thames water loops around the real Isle of Dogs, which is home to the Canary Wharf district rather than exiled pets.

How does Isle of Dogs present most of its human characters' Japanese dialogue to English-speaking audiences?

Without subtitles, viewers lean on an on-screen translator, a translating machine and plain context to follow the humans.

Isle of Dogs had its North American premiere as the closing film of which festival, in March 2018?

South by Southwest hosted the screening in Austin, Texas, a month after the film's world premiere in Europe.

Which member of a famous filmmaking family shares the story credit on Isle of Dogs and voices a character named Igor?

Roman Coppola is one of four people credited with the story, a group that also includes the man who voices the villainous mayor.

Which screen star is credited in Isle of Dogs with voicing a character named Mute Poodle?

Anjelica Huston takes the film's quietest credit, in a cast that also finds room for Harvey Keitel, F. Murray Abraham and Ken Watanabe.